The present invention relates to an axial type electronic component inserting method and apparatus for automatically inserting lead wires of an axial type electronic component into specified holes of a board.
As shown in FIG. 11A, axial type electronic components are assembled with their pairs of lead wires 2a and 2b, extending from electronic component bodies 1a arranged at regular intervals of d1 and taped at both ends by tapes 3a and 3b. It is known that such an assembly of axial type electronic components 1, taped at regular intervals as described above, is subjected to an inserting process by an apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-305600.
A component supplier 4 as shown in FIG. 12 retains such an assembly of axial type electronic components 1. It is provided with cutters 5a and 5b for cutting the tapes 3a and 3b that are taping the lead wires 2a and 2b of the axial type electronic components 1.
Taped end portions including the lead wires of the assembly of the axial type electronic components 1 retained by the component supplier 4 are grasped and pulled by chuck pieces 6 of a component carrier 7. The tapes 3a and 3b are cut by the cutters 5a and 5b of the component supplier 4 so that one axial type electronic component 1 is taken out.
The axial type electronic component 1 that has been taken out is grasped by its end portions by the chuck pieces 6, and then carried by the component carrier 7 to an inserting position.
A component inserter 11 as shown in FIG. 13 receives the axial type electronic component 1 from the component carrier 7 in the inserting position, cuts both the ends of the lead wires 2a and 2b including the lead taping portions of the axial type electronic component 1, bends the extending lead wires 2a and 2b at both ends to a desired width, and inserts the extreme end portions of the lead wires into specified holes of a board.
In the prior art shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the component inserting process has been successively performed by reciprocating one component carrier 7 between the component supplier 4 that retains the axial type electronic components 1 and the component inserter 11 that inserts each axial type electronic component 1.
Furthermore, according to the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-305600, its component carrier is constructed so that it can mount another chuck piece for grasping even a radial type electronic component in addition to the axial type electronic component.
According to the above-mentioned conventional construction, it has been very difficult to reduce the insertion cycle because the axial type electronic component supplying and inserting operations are executed alternately one after another. In other words, since the axial type electronic components are fetched or taken out one by one, there is a process in which the component carrier returns unloaded. This has occupied a great part of the component insertion cycle time, and has been problematic lately when mass production is required in a short time.
Furthermore, in the case of a component grasping device for grasping even a radial type electronic component, in addition to the axial type electronic component, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-305600, there is the issue that the device cannot manage axial type electronic components having different tape intervals (e.g., a tape interval of 26 mm and a tape interval of 52 mm as indicated by d2 in FIG. 11A).